The present invention is in the field of Internet navigation and pertains more particularly to methods and apparatus for providing URL-sensitive interactive chat capability.
The information superhighway known as the Internet is by far the largest source of publicly-available information about virtually any subject. Information from all over the world may be obtained by anyone operating an Internet-connected appliance such as a personal computer. Information available on the Internet is provided to requesting clients by use of a variety of multimedia and interactive technologies. For example, e-mail technology allows advertisers selling from the Internet to send information to consumers about their products or services. Multi-media options for presenting product or service related material to consumers include the use of audio and video technologies. Object modeling is yet another technology used for configuring WEB-based orders, or the like. Still other technologies include interactive banner displays, on-line order forms, interactive guides, and so on.
It is quite clear to the skilled artisan that the Internet is certainly not limited to electronic commerce. That is, many organizations, both government and private maintain WEB sites for dissemination of information and for communication with interested persons. Electronic commerce, (e-commerce) however is arguably the fastest-growing sector of the Internet. The present invention also has particular application to e-commerce systems and activities. For this and other reasons, many of the embodiments and examples used in the present specification to describe embodiments of the present invention are e-commerce-related examples. This should not be taken as a limitation, however, as embodiments of the invention may be applied to al kinds of WEB activity.
The types of technologies used for advertising and facilitating the purchase of a product or service over the Internet depend largely on the type of product or service represented. For example, a car-sales site may use surround-video technology to attract buyers, and object modeling to configure a purchase. A music site may provide audio and audio/video clips for review and an on-line order form for purchase. There are many varying categories of products or services that are discernable and obtainable through interaction with a wide array of various technologies, which are generally known in the art and provided either directly (by the advertisers) or indirectly (by authors of the individual technologies).
Many of the different types of interactive WEB-based technologies used to interact for the purpose of obtaining more information about a product or service are provided in the form of downloaded software programs or modules that configure themselves, or may be configured to a WEB-browser application. Many of these applications are simple controls transparent to a client, are automatically downloaded and invoked only when a client is visiting a WEB page and needs them. Still others are provided as standalone applications or programs that must be purchased, installed via download or other method (CD or Floppy), and invoked separately from a WEB-browser when interacting on the Internet. In general, there has been a push in the software and information industries to integrate Internet technologies to desktop software applications in more seamless and transparent ways.
Advertising and selling over the Internet is becoming more and more commonplace as facilitating technologies are developed and refined. However, in current art, a prospective buyer or interested party to an Ad featuring a WEB-based service or product must operate basically alone when gathering information or making a purchase on-line. Help programs or frequently asked questions (FAQ""s) are made available to assist prospective buyers at the time of or before a purchase, however, these conventions often fall short of satisfying a consumer""s concerns, as they are invariably skewed toward the seller""s point of view. Sometimes a prospective consumer is more confused after reading a FAQ or consulting an on-line help desk than he or she was at the beginning of an ordering process. Moreover, the competitive nature of many WEB-based businesses or services precludes the provision of any information about alternative products or services that may be available to consumers. As described above, many, if not most companies at the present time maintain a commercial WEB site. Frequently these sites offer products and services. Sometimes only information, and guides whereby a person may reach the company by another route than the Internet (phone, mail) to make a purchase. Further to company-hosted sites, many companies advertise on other host""s WEB sites. These advertisements are typically banner-type ads that are created using hyper-text-markup-language (HTML) and posted through agreement by the advertiser and the host of the page. The ad is typically a hyperlink, wherein selection in a Browser application invokes a URL for the advertiser""s particular site.
Typically, if a WEB page is commercial, a host will not accept competitive banner ads that may take traffic away from his or her page as described above. A consumer then, is usually limited to non-competitive advertisement from the particular WEB site that he or she is visiting unless the particular page is dedicated to product review. Most product or service comparisons must be made by virtue of the client navigating to another URL that offers a similar product or service creating more work for a consumer, and often leading to frustration.
One Internet technology that is used both for provision of information, and often, purely for entertainment purposes is interactive chat capability. This capability allows clients who are connected to the Internet to engage in collective sharing of information and direct communication with one another. In order to engage in Internet chat, chat software enabling this type of interactive communication must be installed on each participant""s computer system either as a standalone software program or as a xe2x80x9cplug-inxe2x80x9d to a WEB browser.
Chats or chat sessions, as they are termed, are usually scheduled ahead, and are typically hosted by an entity doing business on the WEB or an entity who is otherwise authorized to provide the session. Many chat sessions are limited to a particular subject matter in which all of the participants are hopefully interested. Often a chat is xe2x80x9copenxe2x80x9d (no particular subject) and attracts persons meeting for general conversation. In some cases, chat sessions are scheduled and associated with WEB sites displaying information such as news articles, political opinions, and so on, that are central to the topic of the session. Sessions may be provided by schedule, or they may be ongoing (continually available). In still other cases, individuals may set up a private chat session and invite certain others to participate in the session. A venue of advertisement that the present inventor believes has been overlooked in the industry is an ability to advertise to on-line chat patrons participating in a chat session.
In prior art situations chat capability is practiced in such as after-market customer care, technical group assistance, forums for hobbyists, political discussion, fan clubs, and private session (invite only). Servers hosted by companies providing the chat software, or by companies hosting a WEB site using the chat software provide the means for the multi-party connections. In some cases, multimedia options other than simple keyboard chat such as I-phone, blackboard drawing, voice messaging, file transfer, or the like are made available to participants having the appropriate software capability for facilitating such media. For the most part, however, session participants are able to interact with each other only by virtue of the commonality that they have the appropriate or supported chat software installed on their computers.
Often, consumers may want to hear the opinions of others or third parties not necessarily connected to a business before committing to a purchase. Also, consumers appreciate an ability to make a comparison, or to look at alternative options before committing to any one product or service. In many instances, consumers are visiting a WEB site to browse only and do not intend to purchase anything from the site even though they may be interested in certain products or services offered by the site. In still other instances, consumers are visiting a non-commercial site about a subject they are interested in and perhaps have purchased or will purchase items related to that subject from any available source. Therefore, an opportunity exists for advertisers to make use of chat technology as a new venue for advertisement.
Individuals wishing to chat purely for entertainment or educational purposes are limited to visiting known (advertised) chat sessions, or must create and host their own chat sessions. Often, it is desired by these individuals to invite many of their on-line friends from their chat program address lists. Generally, they must send messages to those friends and invite them into a session. Moreover, if an individual whishes to invite other individuals to a created chat session about a WEB page he or she is visiting, URL""s must be sent to each individual along with a request to navigate to the WEB page and join in. Such individuals are, however, limited to chatting with those persons who are notified and accept by navigating to the page and joining the session. Persons who have the same chat software capability and are already visiting the same WEB page cannot typically be detected or included in the chat session.
What is clearly needed is a method and apparatus that enables real-time chat capability that is URL-sensitive in real time such that individuals visiting a URL may be detected and offered an opportunity to engage in chat with other individuals visiting the same URL. Such a method and apparatus would provide a new means for participants to communicate with people of common interests as well as providing a new venue for advertisers to send ads and other material to consumers through third party ad streaming.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention a site-sensitive service system in a wide-area network (WAN) is provided, comprising an enhanced browser extension executing on a first client platform and accessing the WAN; and a service-control server in the WAN. The enhanced browser extension opens a first communication link to a first WAN-connected site and at least a second communication link to the service-control server, and reports the address of the first WAN-connected site to the service-control server, and wherein the service-control server streams information to the client platform based on the address of the first WAN-connected site. In preferred embodiments the WAN is the well-known Internet network.
Also in a preferred embodiment information streamed to the first client platform comprises identities of additional clients concurrently connected to the first WAN-connected site. Further, in preferred embodiments the service-control server initiates a chat session among client platforms having a connection to the first WAN-connected site as reported by respective enhanced browser extensions at the client platforms. The server may be connected to multiple chat servers for organization and control of chat sessions.
In some cases the information streamed to the client platform is transparent to a host of the first WAN-connected site, and the information streamed may include advertisements hosted by entities other than a host of the first WAN-connected site. In other cases the information streamed to the client platform is controlled by a host of the first WAN-connected site, and the server may initiate a chat session among client platforms having a connection to the first WAN-connected site as reported by respective enhanced browser extensions at the client platforms, the chat session also controlled by the host of the first WAN-connected site..
In many embodiments the service-control server maintains statistics on sites visited by clients, and makes the statistics available to clients and to hosts of such as WEB pages.
In another aspect of the invention a method for providing selected information by a service-control server to client platforms in a wide-area-network (WAN) is provided, comprising steps of (a) reporting browsing destinations to the service-control server by enhanced browser extensions at the client platforms; (b) listing in the service-control server client platforms accessing common WAN destinations; and (c) streaming information to client platforms based on the lists of client platforms accessing the common destinations. Preferably the WA is the Internet. Further the information may include identities of additional client platforms concurrently connected to the common destinations. In many cases the server can initiate a chat session among the client platforms having a common connection to a WAN destination as reported by respective enhanced browser extensions at the client platforms.
In many cases the information streamed to the client platform is transparent to a host of the common destination, and the information streamed to the client platform includes advertisements hosted by entities other than the host of the common destination. In other cases information streamed to the client platform may be controlled by a host of a common destination. In these embodiments chat sessions are also controlled by the host of the common destination.
In the various embodiments of the invention, disclosed in enabling detail below, for the first time chat capability is seamlessly integrated with Internet browsing, and browsing clients visiting a common Internet site can communicate with one another transparently to the host of the common site. Further, a new dimension in advertising is provided, allowing advertisers to stream ads to clients visiting competitors WEB sites, and other capabilities.